Amid rise in COVID cases, Odisha's govt hospital ramps up testing, other facilities

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], April 8 : Amid the nationwide increase in COVID cases, Capital Hospital in Odisha's Bhubaneswar, run by the state government, has ramped up the testing in line with the government's COVID norms, an official said on Saturday.

The hospital also has separate beds for COVID patients.

"As the Covid-19 cases increased, Capital Hospital has ramped up RT-PCR and antigen testing against Covid-19. Hospital is having ten Covid observation beds with all initially required health facilities against Covid-19. We have all facilities including oxygen, and medicines. If a patient tests positive, we keep them under observation, and then refer to Cuttak as we do not have ICU facilities for the COVID patients at the moment," Dhananjay Das, Deputy Superintendent, Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar told .

"We should comply with the COVID norms as per the guidelines, failing which, there are chances of the cases rising. We should remain cautious and wear masks. Testing is necessary if there are symptoms," he added.

Odisha reported 81 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The total active case tally in the state is now at 489, and 21 Covid positive patients recovered in the past 24 hours in the state.

The country recorded 6,155 fresh Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, marking a marginal increase from Friday's tally of 6,050 cases, the Union health ministry stated in a bulletin on Saturday.

Covid infections in the country have seen an upward trend in the past few days, with the daily fresh infections at 2,994 on April 1, 3,824 on April 2, 3,641 on April 3, 3,038 on April 4, 4,435 on April 5, 5,335 on April 6 and 6,050 on April 7.

Amid a nationwide upward trend in the Covid cases, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday chaired a review meeting with health ministers of all states and Union Territories through video conferencing.

Mandaviya urged state Health ministers to conduct mock drills at hospitals on April 10 and 11 to assess their preparedness in handling a surge in cases.

He also urged states to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases and sending sufficient samples for testing of COVID-19 and Influenza; and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples.

It was observed that 23 states and UTs had average tests per million below the national average."Irrespective of the new COVID variants, the five-fold strategy of 'Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour' continue to remain the tested strategy for COVID management. This would facilitate the undertaking of appropriate public health measures, he said," Mandaviya said.

According to the Union health ministry, states and UTs were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing from the current rate of 100 tests per million, as of the week ending 7th April and further advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.

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